President’s Report
to the
State Board of Community Colleges
March 21, 2003
The legislative session is cranking up and has accelerated its pace significantly since our last meeting. Members of your staff and I have testified on budgets, non-budget issues, and specific bills introduced at our request or by others which impact us. We can expect that pace to continue. In addition, Molly Broad and I participated in a joint legislative event at the North Carolina Western Arboretum in Asheville and Alice and I have hosted five dinners in our home for new members. We have one dinner to go and when that one has been held, most of the new members will have been entertained and hopefully educated about community colleges. We continue to appreciate the significant participation of presidents, trustees, faculty members, and other staff who are lobbying their respective legislators at home and in Raleigh. We also continue to meet with staff of the State Budget Office with regard to budget issues and their role in the final crafting of a new budget.
The pace of development of a bio-manufacturing initiative has also picked up. Susan Seymour has worked incredible hours on our behalf with our partners at North Carolina State University and with the consultants who have done reports on this issue. A presentation was made of those reports to the Golden LEAF Foundation, which funded those studies, and we continue to work with them on follow-on funding.
We have also been aggressive in pursuit of a conclusion to our Foundation endowment fund drive. We believe that we are on target for a completion by May 17 when we will celebrate the 40th anniversary of our System.
I participated in an excellent "Institute for Today’s Leaders" which Dr. Brantley Briley has organized for a select number of his staff at Southeastern Community College.
I met with Dr. Montri Chulavatnatol and his assistant from Kenan Institute Asia with regard to their continuing interest and my continuing involvement in the effort to create a community college system for the country of Thailand. We will be hosting a delegation from Thailand next week. Don Reichard at Johnston Community College, Mary Kirk at Montgomery Community College and Helen Dowdy and Bill Disher at the NC Association of Community College Trustees will be working with this delegation of Ministry of Education leaders and chairs of three local Boards of Trustees of the new colleges.
Senator Marc Basnight has scheduled a series of Economic Recovery Seminars in the General Assembly. I spoke at one of those seminars on the important role of community colleges in economy recovery. The Speakers of the House scheduled a similar "summit" at which I also spoke.
I have met with Bill Pully of the NC Hospital Association and Craig Souza of the NC Health Care Facilities Association with regard to the shortage of nurses for their respective members. They are going to be working with us on an effort to increase the number of masters in nursing which are required to staff our nursing programs. I also met with Linda Cronenwett, Dean of the UNC School of Nursing, about that same subject.
Last week I went to Wilkes Community College to speak to the Computer Instructors Association Conference on legislative issues, especially those affecting technology on our campuses. The Economic and Workforce Development Division worked with that conference and held HRD computer empowerment staff training, which was funded by the Rural Internet Access Authority. This is an important initiative to give unemployed and underemployed persons computer literacy skills. I also spoke to the Law Seminar of the Trustees Association on legislative issues.
The Western North Carolina Training Alliance met at Advantage West in Asheville to hear presentations from Pellissippi State College in Oak Ridge with regard to super computing capabilities, which become practical with computer clustering.
Dr. Saundra Williams and her staff continue to work closely with Kennon Briggs and his staff on addressing the issues of CIS implementation, especially as they relate to the financial and student components.
Dr. Williams and Dr. Delores Parker attended the spring conference for Women Administrators in North Carolina Higher Education.
Karen Yerby of Dr. Parker’s staff chaired the workshop on service learning hosted by the Academic and Student Services Division.
The North Carolina Comprehensive Community College Student Government Association held its spring conference at the Sheraton Imperial. Your Chairman, your Executive Vice President, many of your staff and I participated in this excellent meeting attended by more than 350 student leaders and their advisors. Congressman Bob Etheridge was the keynote speaker.
Kenneth Chandler has been appointed to the Board of Directors of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.
Dr. Randy Whitfield was one of four panelists who testified on "Improving Adult Education for the 21st Century" before a subcommittee of the US House of Representatives Committee on Education and Workforce.
Kennon Briggs and his staff are especially busy right now responding to an incredible number of requests for information from members of the General Assembly and their staff. He is also working with the MGT study of college administrative functions and multi-campus colleges.
Kennon and his staff hosted a Historically Underutilized Business work group of the Presidents’ Association chaired by Dr. Kathy Johnson to increase the participation of these businesses in our bond projects.
The annual conference of the Association of Community College Business Officers was held in Greensboro and involved most of Kennon’s staff. Mr. Fred Williams also participated in that conference.
Mr. Williams also attended the Tech Prep strategic planning team task force meeting in Winston-Salem and spoke at the groundbreaking for the new Continuing Education Building at Robeson Community College.
We continue to solicit your contacts with legislators and prospective Foundation donors. You can help us a great deal with both of these challenges.
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